With art from across the globe, the Walker Art Center travels into the realm of pop art in its spring exhibit, “International Pop.”

The exhibit was curated by Darsie Alexander with Bartholomew Ryan and includes 125 pieces from over 13 countries, including the United States, Japan, Argentina and Germany, according to Ryan. The work was organized by the Walker Art Center using both thematic and contextual approaches to show the pieces’ context and to draw connection between works.

Ryan said the exhibit follows the worldwide emergence of pop art, a movement that questioned traditional works of art by focusing on items in pop culture.

“It is a large-scale, historical survey of pop-related artistic practices from numerous countries around the globe during the period of the mid 1950s to the very early 1970s,” Ryan said.

Prior to the 1950s, trends in art focused on the abstract and did not represent everyday life, according to Ryan. He said the rise of pop art reversed this trend as art was no longer abstract objects distant from the viewer.

“What these works have in common is that (they were made by) artists around the world engaging in the everyday,” Ryan said. “(They were) engaging this new culture that was emerging of mass produced and mass distributed objects, often commodities that were being sold to new groups of consumers that had never really existed before.”

Freshman Makagbe Kuyateh said she would want to attend this exhibit because of the  variation in the pop art as the pieces originate from countries around the world.

“It is interesting because you would usually expect all of these different types of countries to have different types of looks and stuff and they are usually in different spots, but the fact that they are all together, it really makes it more diverse,” Kuyateh said.

Artists during this time period captured aspects of life that were accessible to the viewer, according to Ryan.

“Artists tended to have their own way of making things and their own way of thinking, but they were really engaging to their culture or engaging objects in everyday life,” Ryan said. “They are very much engaging a world that is very familiar to the viewer.”

Ryan said this exhibit communicates to viewers that pop art was not just an American movement, but rather a vital and diverse trend that emerged in many parts of the world.

“I think the mission of the show is to sort of surprise people, but I think what it does reveal is just how rich and how complex art was related to the subject matter,” Ryan said. “So what you see in the show is just artists from around the world struggling to have a voice, finding a voice and in a way seeming like they really all belong together.”

Kuyateh said this exhibit is different from other exhibits because the works of art are unique.

“In most of the exhibits that we have here currently, (the art) is not really that diverse but the pop art is really diverse so I guess more people would want to see that,” Kuyateh said.

Ryan said students would find the exhibit interesting as it conveys similarities between life in the 1950s through the 1970s with life today.

“What these artists were doing specifically is modeling, rehearsing or practicing the behaviors that we now take as second nature,” Ryan said. “So when artists do different things that engage popular culture and the media, they seemed completely radical at that time but they were really actually pointing  a way forward.”

Ryan said he encourages attendance to this exhibition as it is going to have a massive impact by being the only show in the world that is retelling the history of pop art.

“It is just totally different. You will never see anything like this again,” Ryan said. “You have never seen anything like this before and you will never see anything like this again.”

Due to the variation of pop art at its emergence, Ryan said the exhibit is of interest to all different types of people.

“There is no one aesthetic approach to the work so if you are interested in art particularly, but also just if you are interested in culture, politics, history or celebrities, there is something for everything.”

Ryan said this exhibit is an unique way for students to learn about other parts of the world.

“It is going to be a really special, funny, moving, exuberant, exciting exhibition,” Ryan said. “These artists were young, they were crazy and they wanted to change the world and that is what you will see in the show.”

The exhibit opens April 11 and is at the Walker Art Center until Aug. 29, when the tour will continue at Dallas Museum of Art in October and the Philadelphia Museum of Art in January. The exhibit is free for members and those under 18. Regular Walker Art Center admission, which ranges from $9-$14, applies for everyone else.